Pages tagged "Cliffside"

This morning, the EPA announced limits on carbon pollution from power plants. That's a welcome step in fighting climate change—and it wouldn't have happened without communities speaking out against coal plants. Here at RAN, we're proud of the role our network of friends and activists has played in building pressure over the last several years.

Stop TXU! Activists stage protests against financial institutions linked to Texas utility company TXU’s controversial plans to build 11 new coal-fired power plants as part of an expansion strategy that would make it the single largest corporate greenhouse gas emitter in the Unites States. Winter 2007. Photo: Andrew Stern.

University of Kentucky Fossil Fools Day. Students raise a wind turbine atop a coal mound as part of an action for Fossil Fools Day at University of Kentucky. April 1, 2008.

Wise Coal Action. Virginia residents and anti-coal activists form a blockade to disrupt the construction of Dominion's Wise County Coal-Fired Power Plant. September 2008.

Capitol Climate Action. Thousands of activists surround the Capitol Coal Plant in Washington DC to demand its retirement. March 2009.

Duke Energy's Cliffside Coal Plant. RAN activists holding a banner in front of Duke Energy's Cliffside coal plant in Cliffside, North Carolina. The banner action coincided with the release a new report, The Principle Matter: Banks, Climate & The Carbon Principles. January 2011.

Cliffside is a small town in southern North Carolina with a huge coal plant owned by utility giant Duke Energy at its center. Activists from around the southeast have organized and rallied and protested since a major expansion of the plant began in 2008. Unfortunately, despite the good work of climate activists to stop construction, the plant is expected to be operational in 2012.
In 2008, when controversy surrounding the Cliffside coal plant was at its height, six major banks developed and adopted a mechanism for addressing banks' roles in financing high-carbon-emitting industrial projects. Deemed the Carbon Principles, environmentalists welcomed this bank-led commitment as a means of accountability for financing high-carbon projects like new coal-fired power plants. We hoped that banks adopting the Carbon Principles meant that they were getting serious about their role in financing global warming.
RAN's new Carbon Principles report makes clear that we were too optimistic. Duke's Cliffside plant serves as an example of exactly the kind of project that the banks should have been moving away from. Instead of taking the Carbon Principles seriously, however, five of the six Carbon Principles banks — Citi, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and Wells Fargo — provided nearly $1 billion in financing to Duke Energy in 2 different bond offerings, both of which were within a year and a half of the adoption of the Carbon Principles by those banks.
Yesterday, I traveled with climate justice activists from Charlotte, North Carolina who worked to stop the Cliffside's expansion to visit the plant. We held a banner in front of the plant to draw attention to the need for banks to develop meaningful climate policies that push them to stop investments in dirty coal and instead invest in the renewable energy of the future.
Its time that banks get the message and make real commitments to stop bankrolling plants like Cliffside that will spew global warming gasses into the atmosphere for decades to come.
Take action and demand that the Carbon Principles banks stop funding coal plants!

Community members engage in civil disobedience to prevent the construction of coal fired facility.
This morning, the Cliffside Climate Action brought hundreds to Duke Energy's headquarters in Charlotte North Carolina to protest the construction of the new Cliffside coal facility.
The latest news is that 44 community members and supporters have been arrested, sending a bold message of urgency around the need to get off coal for the health of our communities and the future of our planet.
The Cliffside Climate Action is the latest in the growing wave of civil disobedience demanding that we get our country off dirty energy and coal power. Duke Energy's continued pursuit of construction of two coal-fired power plants stands in stark contrast to its rhetoric of environmental care.
Check out all the photos in the Charlotte Observer, the Stop Cliffside Twitter feed, and a piece in the WCNC News.

A few hours ago hundreds of protesters converged on the headquarters of Duke Energy in Charlotte NC to demand a stop to the construction of the Cliffside Coal-fired power plant. This is just the latest in the growing wave of civil disobedience that is building around the country demanding that we get America off coal - the number one cause of global warming pollution in the US. Duke Energy stands out as one of the most hypocritical utilities - on the one hand professing to care about the climate, and on the other, continuing to pursue the construction of two conventional coal-fired power plants. Citi and Bank of America both have outstanding financial relationships with Duke - and this protest, coming on the eve of Citi's shareholder meeting and just a week before Bank of America's, underscores the escalating reputational risk associated with their continued support of dirty coal.
Stay tuned for a report and photos from the ground from Scott Parkin.

Activists across North Carolina took action against Bank of America’s dirty coal financing.

In the early hours of commuter traffic, Raleigh commuters encountered banners at key thoroughfares – reminding them that “Coal Ain’t Clean”, and that Bank of America continues to finance the coal industry, including Mountaintop Removal coal mining and dirty coal power companies like Duke Energy.

Later in the day, folks in Wilmington joined Raleigh, as activists went around both cities shutting down dozens of Bank of America ATM machines with global warming crime scene tape.

Even Bank of America Headquarters in Charlotte were not spared on this day, as a group of activists left the bank a gift inside the HQ building – a banner suspended from scores of helium balloons, with the message “Stop Banking on Climate Change”.

A number of public interest groups around Charlotte, North Carolina, have been campaigning against Duke Energy’s plans to build an 800 MW Coal power expansion to their Cliffside facility. Bank of America is one of the primary financiers of Duke. Like many other swing states that turned color on Nov 4th, it appears the color of public opinion on coal in North Carolina may be turning as well.